Not your usual Mercenary Day
by Sakura Alexia
Summary: In the previous days, while the whole group was out for a mission, during night time as they were all huddled close to a bonfire, their Gunzerker friend mentioned about Mercenary Day and how it was celebrated when he was living in his village with his grandmother...


A shot rang in the distance, the bullet splitting the air of the frozen tundra in two, a wail, and the massive ape-like creature dropped dead on the ground close to its similars. Atop a snowy cliff a woman with blue hair lowered the sniper rifle she was holding in her hands as she turned to look at the figure whose face was covered by a helmet, that was sitting beside her.

"That was the last one" she said, passing the rifle over to the other person, a smug look on her face. She received a smiley emoji from the other's helmet.

Since both Maya and Zero were stuck in Three Horns with the task of killing some of the local animals to later bring them to Sanctuary to become food, the Assassin thought it would have been an interesting idea to challenge the Siren to snipe down an entire pack of bullymongs by herself, without the help of her powers too. Challenge that she accepted without much thought and that she accomplished. Maya was no expert sniper, yet she wasn't all that bad, she was probably one of the few of the group that even knew how to use a sniper rifle, maybe with the exception of Axton.

"Now we need…" she didn't even manage to finish the sentence as she watched Zero line up the rifle and take down an entire flock of rakks with absolutely no effort, nor wasted bullets either, she briefly wondered if the Assassin could ever even miss a shot, she never saw such thing happen, ever.

"Show off…" she grumbled, receiving a laugh and an XD emote flashing over the Assassin's helmet, she gave him a playful jab on the ribs with her tattooed arm.

"Why don't you go cut those things apart? I'll get the Technical" the Siren didn't even wait for an answer as she slid down a nearby slope in order to retrieve their vehicle that they hid close by, wiping off the snow from her pants as she landed back on the ground.

Zero watched her dart off before sliding down himself, heading the opposite way, towards the corpses of the fallen animals they just killed.

In the previous days, while the whole group was out for a mission, during night time as they were all huddled close to a bonfire, their Gunzerker friend mentioned about Mercenary Day and how it was celebrated when he was living in his village with his grandmother. He explained that usually the people there didn't go along with each other too much, this was Pandora after all, however during this day hostilities were put aside and the villagers had a big feast together. With that he expressed his will to do the same for his friends, so with that he gave them a list, or rather he scribbled it on a piece of paper that Maya later had the patience to rewrite so it would be readable, of creatures to kill so he could cook them. He also instructed them to not use any elemental weapon, hence the reason why Zero handed his sniper over to Maya, and they he didn't want anybody to get hurt at all, which was actually pretty sweet of him.

If it was the beginning, none of them would have probably trusted the man with such a thing, especially given his history with cannibalism, which he claimed that it had been only a one-time thing for pure necessity that none of them dared to ask about. However Salvador had been the only local Pandoran native of them, and was familiar with the local wildlife more than anyone else, and knew what was to eat and what wasn't, and surprisingly he was a pretty good cook as well, he always said that his grandmother taught him, and they were thankful for that. His skills combined with Axton's ability to perfectly ration their meals thanks to his military training, kept them going for days.

So here he was, with his Siren companion hunting for bullymongs and rakks, and having a bit of fun challenging her as he did, while the rest of the group was off hunting skags and threshers, all except Krieg, the poor Psycho had no sense of self control when it came to killing, he would have probably dismembered everything if he was left with this task, so they made him stay in Sanctuary. The man complained a bit, however the promise of a lot of meat he could eat settled him down. Of course he was also being watched over by Lilith and Mordecai as well, to make sure he stayed quiet. They were glad that he listened to everyone now instead of only Maya like when they all met, sometimes he even ignored her, but time passed and they got used to him as much as he got used to them too.

Speaking of the Siren, he heard the roar of an engine approaching him as she drove over to his location, just as soon as he finished cutting off the last wing from a rakk with his sword. He watched in awe as Maya vaulted herself over the railing of the Technical to exit the driver's seat, holding herself up with her arms and then gracefully landing on the snow. He had to admit, this woman was stronger than she looked, which Axton found out the hard way challenging her to a friendly hand on hand combat, and then found himself with his face in the dirt, and everyone else laughing at him. He certainly never underestimated her again, nor accused her to rely on her powers too much.

"You're done already?" she asked, admiring his work. All she got was a nod.

Nodding herself she got to work, helping him to put their prizes on the back of the truck in silence, none of them seemed to mind about it, but Pandora and its inhabitants were already loud enough most of the time, so the moments of silence were appreciated by them both.

Once done the Siren climbed in the gunner's seat, signaling the Assassin to drive them to the nearest fast-travel station so they could digistruct themselves, along with their soon to be meals, to Sanctuary. It wasn't like Maya didn't like to drive, it's just that she wasn't the best driver, she didn't exactly have much experience with it back on Athenas, the monks always insisted on driving her wherever she had to be, the rare times she was allowed outside of the abbey. Awful times, she thought.

As soon as they digistructed in the city, Krieg ran over to them, or rather to Maya, like a big overgrown puppy, yelling "Pretty Lady" at her, he was eager to see her again and to take the heavy weights off the hands of them both, even if he was a Psycho he liked to show off his strength like most males. They headed over to headquarters, pleasantly greeted by the sight of everyone else, and it seemed like someone decorated the place too, putting colorful lights all over the place, probably Tina's idea.

Salvador walked over to them with a huge grin on his face as he examined their work. "Good job mis amigos" He rubbed his hands excitedly. "Time to work" He grabbed the stuff they brought along, helped by Krieg, and then disappeared in the kitchen.

"You two should probably go put something warm on, you must have been freezing out in Three Horns during winter" Lilith spoke up. "And it looks like it will take a while to eat anyway"

Both Maya and Zero nodded, but before they could do anything they heard thumping from the stairs, Tina emerged from the door followed by Brick, who was carrying a load of presents.

"What is this?" Lilith frowned staring at them, she didn't know about any of this, and it looked like no one else did either.

"Are these for us?" Gaige bounced over to the two from her spot on the couch, her ECHO left abandoned on it, still open on the ECHOnet.

"Hell yes girl, I chose them myself" Tina grinned to them. "Now open them up!" she yelled.

"You didn't have to do this you know?" the Firehawk said as she strolled over to ruffle the young girl's hair, a smile on her face.

"It was Brick's idea, but I helped"

"It's a little something for you all, Tina wanted to help out so I let her choose them out and wrap them up" Brick explained. "It's one for each"

It wasn't new that the big man had a soft heart, and his friend were what he cared the most about, even though his ways of showing affection sometimes left them more bruises than anything, with the none too gentle pats on the shoulders and bone breaking hugs. No one was expecting gifts though.

"Well then let's see what you got for us" Axton gave the Berserker a friendly pat on the shoulder before looking for his own present, ironically it was wrapped with a mimetic pattern, much similar to his military attire.

Meanwhile in the background Tina excitedly trudged in the kitchen and literally dragged Salvador out so he could get his own present too. Obviously the girl was eager to see their reaction and no one could blame her, besides Tina was always excited when she got involved in something, whether it was helping out with small tasks but even more if there was to blow stuff up.

"Presents? For us? You're too kind amigo" the Gunzerker grinned as he grabbed his, it was the only one left after all, the others already claimed their own.

Krieg was the first one to open his, all the while laughing maniacally and throwing orange paper everywhere, like a child, a big one. Inside of it there were a green sweater with all kinds of colorful presents, and claptraps, on it, and a pair of green and brown pants with a square like design.

"KEEP WARM!" he yelled as he held up the clothes before hugging them close to his chest, he probably liked them.

"So, clothes huh?" Maya asked as she opened hers.

Brick gave her a sheepish look. "Well I figured they would be useful, and its cold so…"

"Shut up, they're beautiful" Lilith interrupted him as she held her own fiery red sweater with what it looked like to be a phoenix on it against her chest. It seemed like not every sweater was winter themed.

"They're certainly better than anything I've ever owned, that for sure" the blue haired woman spoke up again as she showed off her own stuff. She had a white sweater with what it looked like a reindeer on it, the left sleeve had blue snowflakes over it, probably recalling her blue tattoos, and orange pants.

"I can't imagine that you never had anything fancy to wear, you must have had a dress or so at some point, don't tell me you went around naked or something" Axton laughed. "Even though that would be quite the sight to see… ow…" he received a jab on his ribs by Gaige, with her metallic arm too.

Maya just rolled her eyes at the comment. "As much as I know you would like to see me walk around with no clothes on, to answer your question I had plenty of dresses all adorned with heavy jewelry that the Order always forced me to wear. I never actually chose what I had to wear, they always did for me" she sighed. "These though are a meaningful gift, thanks Brick" she smiled at him, he smiled back and nodded, unsure of what to say. "And thanks Tina for choosing them too" the young girl gave her a grin and a thumbs up. "Anytime girl" Maya walked over to ruffle her hair, earning a giggle from the child.

"Wow Axton, you made yourself the fool of the situation once again, congratulations" the Mechromancer gave him a slight glare, punctuated by an angry emote flashing in his direction from Zero's helmet as he returned from having changed clothes into the ones he was given. He looked like a wrapped up present himself now.

The Commando gave the Siren a rather embarrassed look, they knew how Maya didn't like to talk about the time spent on her home planet. She interrupted him before he could say something. "I accept your apologies, just be glad that I'm in a good mood, or you would be flying out of the window already" and he knew that she would do that, he had fallen victim to the Siren's wrath before. An angry Siren was never something you wanted to deal with.

Axton made himself quiet as he instead observed his outfit, purple and yellow with some red here and there, it looked like a kind of uniform too, probably like a tin soldier or so, how ironic, once a soldier always a soldier.

After dressing up and now looking like Santa himself, Salvador returned to the kitchen, not before giving a thumbs up to his friends. While Gaige had disappeared too and returned moments later, she had a brown dress with both her shirt and leggings being striped red and green, she bumped into Tannis as she ascended the stairs, wondering for what reason she would do so, since she never wanted to have anything to do with any of them unless it was strictly necessary. Usually it was because one of the two parts needed a favor from the other.

"There are packages outside the door for you imbeciles, I ain't bringing them to you" the woman snorted with her usual attitude, before leaving once more. Without saying anything Brick went to retrieve them, returning moments later with two heavy looking boxes, one from Moxxi and one from Marcus.

The one from the bartender contained various assorted alcoholic beverages, which Mordecai, now in his Bloodwing shirt, very much appreciated. A note attached to it read "for all the help, these are on the house" along with a kiss on it, typical Moxxi. While Marcus for sure had sent them some new sparking weapons, he was a gun dealer after all. And they were right, new guns ranging from pistols to launchers, ready to be tried out on the field at the first occasion they got. For as grumpy and greedy as he was, Marcus could also be kind when he wanted to, and, they were his number one customers after all.

They didn't have much time to look at them as Salvador once again emerged from the kitchen with a huge grin, announcing, well shouting, that dinner was ready. He had overdone himself with skag steak, rakk wings, grilled bullymong meat, thresher soup, and whatever else other people could just imagine.

They all sat at the table, eating and chatting among themselves, or yelling nonsense in Krieg's case, sharing and listening to stories of past holydays spent back when they lived on their respective home planets. Some of nice families, like the holidays spent with their family every year of Gaige and Lilith.

"My parents weren't bad, however the rest of my family didn't really like the tattoos, they didn't say much but you could see them frown every time they looked at me. But otherwise it wasn't that bad, it was only once a year anyways" the Firehawk shrugged as she resumed eating.

"Oh you should have seen mine when they saw my super cool arm and DT, they freaked out" the Mechromancer joined in, excitedly grinning and flailing her arms as she talked. She was very proud of what she constructed.

Some were of pure laughter.

"Wait, so you made a snowman in the middle of the battlefield, with the enemy's help as well?" Mordecai frowned at Axton's statement.

"Oh yeah, and it was hilarious, we even engaged in a snowball fight, we ended up in serious trouble for that, Sarah was so pissed" the Commando laughed at the memory of his wife, well now ex-wife, yelling at them. But hell if it was worth the risk.

Other stories weren't as nice though, when power and greed was involved.

"So let me get this straight, those monks that kept you caged in their abbey didn't have enough of the money they made an entire year, and took it even mode on the population during this day?" Lilith almost growled at the statement she just made.

"That is true, what better period to ask for money and whatever else they could think of because the Goddess of Athenas demanded it. What a load of bullshit that was" Maya angrily bit a piece of steak. "Should have known better than that"

"Hey now, those assholes aren't here anymore, they can do nothing to you, you're here with us, and we ain't gonna lie to you" Axton put a hand on the Siren's shoulder, she recoiled slightly but didn't complain.

"I know, sometimes I wonder what happened to the Athenians after I left, but then I remember I just stopped caring about my home planet. That's none of my business anymore" the woman shrugged.

"That's my girl" the Soldier wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer.

"Get off me" she growled at him, her markings lighting up their usual blue. Before he had time to react he found himself hanging in the air, and with his butt on the ground a second later, among the laughter of everyone else present in the room, and even himself.

Mercenary day only came once a year, but they would be liars, if this wasn't the best one they ever had.


End file.
